Chapter Five: Names on a Rope

Rust-red brine filled the shaft bottom to their knees. Lung Gate waited at the end like a pair of closed ribs. Su's medical transport stood before it. A man now occupied the empty seat. A cold-storage transfer needle protruded from his chest, and a pale ring marked the wrist where an identity band had been torn away. Su found his pulse. Tears came before recognition. "I don't know him," she said, "but my hands remember how to save him." The vehicle terminal displayed: RESERVE PERSONNEL MA WEN DELIVERED. LUNG GATE AUTHORITY: 1. Three hundred permissions meant three hundred forgotten people.